Thoughts On V-Cast

I've had my new RazR cell phone for one day now, and have already lost it because it's so small.  At times like this that I think that I don't even need any electronic gadgets at all. Before you gasp for air, I found the phone.  It was in one of the dining room chairs at home.

I spent most of last night playing around with the phone and setting up my speed dial numbers.  I checked out all of the ringtones on the phone, and found a tolerable temporary one to use until I take the time to get "Movin' On Up" and "Brick House" downloaded again.  I got the Bluetooth wireless headset in sync with the phone, and spent a few minutes checking out V-Cast.  When I got the phone yesterday, the CSR said that I get a month of V-Cast free with the phone. After 30 days, it would be $15 a month to subscribe. (The girl also said that they would send me a text message the day before the free trial is over so I could call and cancel if I wanted.  Pretty cool, eh?)  So I thought "What the heck?" and decided to give it a try since I could watch the stuff for a month for free.  I'd been seeing commercials and ads for the cool things you can get through V-Cast - episodes of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" and tons of music videos.  I checked out the "Desperate Housewives" section first. I thought I would check out last week's episode since I missed it.  Imagine my surprise when I found out it would cost $3.99 to download it.  I did some more checking and an episode of "Lost" was the same price.  So if I were paying for V-Cast, let me recap for you:  it would have cost me $18.99 to watch an episode of "Desperate Housewives" on a very small (but also very clear and colorful) screen - something that I could watch for free on my big TV at home.  I don't think so.  I'd like to look at Verizon's income statement because I'm pretty sure this is where they are making their money.  It's no wonder they can give away $200 phones for free - they'll make that up with all of the monthly subscription fees to V-Cast. 

I did some more checking, determined to find the "over 300 things" you could watch for free on V-Cast (something that Carla the CSR told me yesterday) and the only thing half-way interesting was a small article in the TV Guide V-Cast section about Star Jones' recent breast reduction surgery.  If I were rich and didn't care, maybe I wouldn't hesitate to fork over the money to watch "Desperate Housewives" on my cool new cell phone, or maybe I would pay $1.99 to watch a Pussycat Dolls video.  But I'm not rich, and I won't pay $15 a month to read about Star Jones and her surgeries.  I'll just be content to use the phone to talk.